Friday, 22 August 2014

Why don't fundraisers become CEO's?

Reading about John Bines promotion from director of
fundraising at EveryChild to chief executive in the latest issue of Third
Sector made me think of a “conversation” (ie conducted in 140 characters or
less) that I had recently with @AlexSwallow
and @Pollysymondson about the
apparently low numbers of fundraisers that move into being a CEO.

It is a topic that interests me for a few reasons; one that
I had previously worked at a charity led by not only a former fundraiser but a
woman to boot (there is an imbalance at CEO level, apparently, but less so that
in the private sector).

@LucyRothstein
held a number of senior fundraising roles before moving from Development
Manager at The Grasslands Trust to being its first Chief Executive – she has
since moved on to the same role at The Bumblebee Conservation Trust, so it
wasn’t by any means a one off!

Secondly, I had wondered myself whether it was something
that was part of my own future aspirations; I had a partial answer to this a
while ago when a work situation presented opportunities in this direction and I
felt it wasn’t where I was headed.

I put this down to me as an individual; I am
a bad public speaker, going off on tangents every few minutes, and I often
spill things down myself. I feel like a CEO should have more personal gravitas.

But this discussion, and several others I have had on the
topic, make me wonder whether there was something about either the perception
of fundraisers suitability for CEO roles, or whether fundraisers simply don’t
want to move in this direction.

I feel that it may be a combination of the two;
according to Civil
Society’s Director of Fundraising Survey 2011 25% of senior fundraisers
have aspirations to become chief exec, but few make the move. I didn’t think
even 25% seemed that high considering the survey questioned fundraising
directors at the largest charities.

Fundraising seems like a perfect background for a CEO; we
understand financial pressures, managing multiple projects and developing new
ones, and acting as a bridge between funders and services. We have to know the
work of our charity inside out, as we are the ones often facing the general
public, and need to build their confidence in us.

When Chris Askew was promoted from director of fundraising
at Breakthrough Breast Cancer to chief executive he said in an interview, “there
might be a perception that the director of fundraising is too close to the
fundraising side.

Fundraising in many organisations is quite a large part of
everything they do, so I can imagine that there might be a concern that someone
coming from this part of the organisation’s operational side might have too
much of a focus on the fundraising side of things.”

Or maybe we just love fundraising too much? @Pollysymondson commented in our
discussion that you are less hands on with fundraising as a CEO, even if it is
within your remit - whereas even at manager or director level within a fundraising
team, your role is often very hands on in terms of actually “doing fundraising”
because that is what you are good at, and what you enjoy.

1 comment:

Do fundraisers make good leaders? The answer is often no. Great fundraisers are often technical specialists,but leadership is a specialization all on it's own. When i look around the fund development sector, there are many organizations struggling under bad leadership, so it doesn't shock me that so few CEOs have a fundraising background.